The answer is simple. In my view, they further the arguments for LGBT equality, at least in the UK and US where most of our readers live. It’s such a simple argument for me, that I’ve sometimes wondered if these groups are actually LGBT rights activists in disguise.

In the eight years that have passed since I founded PinkNews, I have debated a variety of opponents of LGBT equality. Some are awful, homophobic bigots like the Westboro Baptist Church. Others though are more subtle, their base argument is the same but their language is not intolerant, it’s reasonable and most dangerously, for some people, it’s believable. The second group are harder to debate, their reasonablity gives their arguments legitimacy.

The reality is that around half of the readers of these sorts stories are not LGBT, they are people who have been shared them by their LGBT friends. Their sense of moral outrage is in my view incredibly useful in dispelling the more reasonable arguments of mild mannered homophobes. They share the stories on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit all with a sense of shock at what hateful people say about LGBT people.

So every-time one of these hate groups bothers to waste their time sending PinkNews a press release or a graphic that looks like it has been knocked up on a 1990s PC with a copy of Paint, yes we despair, but also we rub our hands with glee, certain in the knowledge that they will probably do more to advocate the need for equality than even the most earnest of LGBT rights campaigners.

PinkNews covers religion, politics, entertainment, finance, and community news for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the UK and worldwide. Founded to produce broadsheet quality journalism for the LGBT community, we cover politics to theology in an intelligent manner.